Great characters and great stories don't come out of nowhere. They have a beginning, and sometime the lives they led before they're introduced are just as interesting as who they are when me meet them.

Movie effects artist-turned-cartoonist Tim Gibson has created a whole new world for himself with Moth City. Described as "Game of Thrones-y" but with kung fu and 1930s crime noir, the digital series has attracted much interest, as well as high praise from the likes of Mark Waid. And next week Gibson will release a one-shot prelude to Moth City titled The Reservoir, focused on the Deadwood-ian primary character Governor McGaw when he was nothing more an an entrepreneurial young buck in the Texas oil boom of the early 1900s.

"Moth City’s Governor McCaw is another despicable fellow," Gibson writes in a post on the Moth City website. "He grew from my story’s antagonist to a character that encompasses all the dark parts of the story. He’s a controlling father, a ruthless businessman, and a tough son of a bitch. He’s a man out of his time, forcing his will onto those around him. In other words he’s the perfect cowboy."

This one-shot comic is a latter-day Western that Gibson says will explore the formative days of McGaw, and the ideas of nature versus nurture, empathy, trust and family. The Reservoir will be available beginning Feb. 5 on comiCology for $2.99, and is recommended as a great standalone story or entry point into the main Moth City series.